Telecom spectrum auction was a success: Telecom minister Manoj Sinha

​Telecom minister Manoj Sinha said that the just-ended spectrum auction was a success, with the government mopping up Rs32,000 crore in upfront payment, its largest eveETTelecom | Updated: October 08, 2016, 10:19 IST

Manoj SinhaTelecom ministerManoj Sinha said that the just-ended spectrum auction was a success, with the government mopping up Rs32,000 crore in upfront payment, its largest ever. Edited excerpts:

This spectrum auction appears to have failed. Comments.

This spectrum auction was the biggest auction ever. This was the highest spectrum sale 4 years which witnessed the sale of 964.8 Mhz. In the last four years, 955 Mhz of spectrum has been sold. I totally disagree with the statement that this spectrum auction was a ‘failure’ (according to newspapers). The auction payment of Rs 32000 crore is the highest till now. I hope that after this auction, nobody would cite ‘lack of spectrum’ as a cause for call drops. There would be no complaints in this regard. I think Digital India will get momentum after this spectrum auction.

Would you be re-considering pricing of the spectrum bands?

Industry holds the view that the pricing is not appropriate and we have listened to them , but the pricing has been finalized as per the usual norms/process/ structure. An appropriate ecosystem was not developed.

What does the government plan to do with the 60% unsold spectrum? Do you think that the pricing for some bands was too high?

Earlier the spectrum auctions were serving the purpose of providing telcos with the basic spectrum to run their networks, this time the spectrum auction was not for ‘survival’ rather it was for the telcos to strengthen their hold on various bands. This spectrum auction needs to be looked with a different perspective. The spectrum put on sale this time was technology and industry driven.

Will we meet the estimated telecom income this year?

Yes, more or less.

Do you think that the 700 Mhz drawing ​a ​blank would impact service​s​ in any way?

It can’t be said whether this will impact the service or not but the world knows that this is the best spectrum band.

Would you be putting the 700 Mhz for auction next year or in two-three years?

The industry and media has been stressing on the ‘costly’ nature of the band, if the telcos do not have the financial capacity to buy the spectrum now, how would they manage to buy it if we put it for auction in a short period? We believe that the telcos must not be in the financial position to buy this spectrum, we can either wait for the ecosystem to develop or we can wait till the time telcos can afford it.

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